Yeasss! After about 14 months of trying me and Riley have had an almost perfect loose lead walk. We just have to nail down meeting other dogs head to head. We are all OK if the dog is on the other side of the street then she just keeps her eye on the dog till we have gone passed. The articles on these pages have been a great encouragement nowing that other Lab owners go through the same problems. We normally take her first meal of the day (dry food not raw) in a treat bag and use it as rewards during our walks. I am sure that the problem with loose lead walking (pulling) sis not the dogs problem in the least but that the being on the other end of the lead needs the training the most. I know this is only the beginning of successful walking so we will both keep on keeping on. Thanks everyone for a great forum

The walking in the neighborhood has been going so well lately (click-treat) that we decided to take Libby to the local duck pond today. It's a pretty good walk around, however, one thing I didn't anticipate were all the other people walking THEIR dogs. While everyone we encountered had wonderful dogs who quietly walked along side their owners, Libby went to her old ways, pulling, lunging, straining to get to the other animals and pretty much making my husband and I look a bit silly not having any control of our dog. As far as the ducks in the pond - she really wasn't that interested. No trips to the pond anytime soon....... it was pretty bad.

I thought I was getting the walk thing, when I stopped she stopped sat down, looked at me and waited then wham Pull, PULL! It`s killing me I cannot raise my arm! It is so depressing am I giving her the wrong message? Help! today my lovely dog has become an explosion! She is still great off leash but I cannot cope with the leash. Failure!

How old is she? I think you need to take her to somewhere really boring where you can practice, not going anywhere. I walked up and down outside my house for what seemed like forever - it wasn't. I was doing 10 yards up, cross, 10 yards down, cross, 10 yards up, cross etc. just walking in a square. This way, anything there that WAS interesting became boring and we could concentrate on the walking. Then I could gradually extend the 10 yards. Lots and I mean LOTS of treats for walking where I wanted him, very high rate of treating - this reduces the amount of time you have to stop & wait which can be frustrating for your dog (and you). I was counting paces - eg two steps - treat, two steps - treat. As the dog gets it you can increase and vary the number of steps before the treat. I still remember the day I got to 30 steps - treat

Thanks @snowbunny for the original post, and to others for bumping up recently. This is really timely for me. I've been feeling a bit despairing about Pongo. I am pleased that he is a gentle, kind, happy and confident dog, but I do feel a complete failure on (a) recall and (b) pulling. He has never learned about lead-walking because he is hardly ever on a lead....he doesn't need to be. But as a result he is dreadful on the rare occasions I do put him on lead (members of the SW walkies pack will know what I mean @Hollysdad@Naya@Beanwood@selina27).

I had kind of given up, and resigned myself to never being able to take him anywhere that recall and loose-lead were essential. But in the last few days I've given myself a stern talking to about defeatism, and decided to give it one more try. I'm going to get professional help for the recall issue; but after reading this article I'm going to have a go on the loose-lead stuff myself. Starting today.

Wish me luck. I may need a lot of encouragement on this one to stick at it! I'm clear that the problem here is not the dog, it is the hooman....

@Rosie - You can do it
It will mean it will only be Harley in our group that shows us up . She's really good at certain locations, but new places are never going to be brilliant, but we are working on this too!

How old is she? I think you need to take her to somewhere really boring where you can practice, not going anywhere. I walked up and down outside my house for what seemed like forever - it wasn't. I was doing 10 yards up, cross, 10 yards down, cross, 10 yards up, cross etc. just walking in a square. This way, anything there that WAS interesting became boring and we could concentrate on the walking. Then I could gradually extend the 10 yards. Lots and I mean LOTS of treats for walking where I wanted him, very high rate of treating - this reduces the amount of time you have to stop & wait which can be frustrating for your dog (and you). I was counting paces - eg two steps - treat, two steps - treat. As the dog gets it you can increase and vary the number of steps before the treat. I still remember the day I got to 30 steps - treat

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She is 8 months and thanks for your advice I`ll give it a try. I get the feeling she doesn`t get it, she stops sits down and waits there like an angel then explodes again. It takes me forever to get up the drive and I confess we never achieve a good walk before I give up! Yes I do take treats but they don`t seem to work. I must be doing something wrong!

She is 8 months and thanks for your advice I`ll give it a try. I get the feeling she doesn`t get it, she stops sits down and waits there like an angel then explodes again. It takes me forever to get up the drive and I confess we never achieve a good walk before I give up! Yes I do take treats but they don`t seem to work. I must be doing something wrong!

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Perhaps the treats are not so fabulous in her mind. I mainly use tiny pieces of roast beef - this was great for rewarding Coco's efforts at loose lead walking. Just go out onto your drive and plan to walk one or two steps.

Why is she stopping? Is this because she's pulling and you've stopped? Try & get the treat to her BEFORE this happens. Literally, one step at a time at first. Probably the only thing you're doing wrong is having you expectations too high! Lower your expectations. Coco was 16 months old when I started to train loose lead (he's a rescue). It is honestly the hardest thing I've done. You'll get there.

What's the advice for sudden lunging? Beau has really improved leaps and bounds since I started his loose lead training, but he'll still do the odd lunge every now and again, for example yesterday when a cat suddenly appeared and he nearly took my arm off. Or today...when two elderly people were leaning against a wall and he suddenly went for their bums!! Thank goodness I stopped him from invading their bum space with his over-eager Lab nose in time... Honestly I don't know what he was thinking...he's usually really solid walking past people. I've proofed it so many times by now but well I guess I can't say I've ever proofed him against that particular scenario